Meet the Mighway Team

We believe the best bits of an adventure lie in the unexpected - the detours off the beaten track, and the stops along the way. We always stop for ice cream to make the journey that much sweeter. It’s in those magic moments that Mighway makes its name.

Dave Simmons

Chief Executive Officer

Dave has worked in travel and tourism for 20 years in many countries around the world. For the past 8 years, Dave has been based back in his home country of New Zealand working in a Senior Management role for Air New Zealand and Les Mills International. After a brief break from the tourism industry, Dave jumped at the opportunity to lead an exciting new start-up business that will show case New Zealand, and enable people to explore the country in the best possible way – cruising in a motorhome.

Jason Nockels

Head of Global Marketing

Jason has 10 years experience in digital marketing with 7 years in the travel & tourism industry. After spending some time in the accommodation sector and 3 years within the airline industry at Air New Zealand’s grabaseat, Jason has decided to expand his travel industry knowledge by joining mighway. Jason is passionate about travel and is excited to help make motorhome travel more accessible to people, connecting vehicle owners with travellers from all over the world.

Tim Hamilton

Lead Content Producer

Tim Has been working in film and television for ages. He’s played every role from professional bum-double to animation director. He wasn’t uniform enough for the industry, as he dances to the beat of his own drum. But, this suits Mighway perfectly fine. Tim is crafting stories for mighway. If you see him on the road, be sure to go say hi. He is full of bad travel advice.

Rachel Simpson

Content Marketing Executive

Rachel joined the team at Mighway in 2017 after finishing her English/History BA at the University of Auckland. She's tasked with executing our global SEO strategy, and creating all the content. In her spare time, Rachel is often cooking, reading, using big words, sharing historical anecdotes, binging Netflix originals, or playing a demon barbarian in Dungeons and Dragons.

Andrew Cho

Digital Marketing Executive

Andrew has an absolute passion for design and is a recent graduate from AUT, studying a Bachelor of Communications, Majoring in Digital Media. Andrew has joined the team as a Product & Brand design intern and will be assisting with the UI/UX aspects of the Mighway platform and is excited to create a better experience for our users. In his free time, he loves to play games, over-analyse films, and explore nature.

Joe Brown

US Marketing Manager

Joe was previously the Ecommerce Strategist for Winegardner & Hammons Hotel Group, and has spent the last 6 years in the travel industry. From founding a successful outdoor ecommerce brand, to building digital marketing strategies for every major hotel brand, he has found a passion for delivering unique digital experiences. Outside of work you can find him camping and eating his weight in bacon, kayaking, or running.

Nick Auld

Head of Market Development

Nick joins Mighway from his previous role as National Sales Manager at the AA. Prior to the AA Nick worked extensively in the vehicle fleet and leasing industry in NZ, Australia, Europe and the UK. Nick brings with him vast experience of developing partnerships with Auto Dealers, Finance and Insurance companies, Manufacturers and suppliers across international markets. He is also a contributor to Auto magazines and has extensive trade show experience.

Nick is a keen fisherman, paddle boarder, hiker, rugby fanatic and a lover of music and good food. Nick is looking forward to significantly growing the Mighway business in NZ, the US and beyond.

Sarah Soumbo

Business development & Partnerships Manager

Sarah has 6 years experience in Sales and Marketing and 5 years experience in Banking. Inspired by people, nature, sports and travels, Sarah naturally started working in the Tourism Industry 2 years ago and has joined the Mighway team in January 2017. As Business development and Partnership Manager, Sarah is excited about growing the Mighway owner community focusing on the US market. In her free time, Sarah enjoys hiking, body boarding, diving, playing Capoeira and catching up with friends.

Luke Owen

Business Development Manager

Luke is from the UK and brings 10 years of experience within Sales, Events, and Tourism. As Business Development Manager, he is passionate about growing the Mighway platform in the USA as well as here in New Zealand. In his free time, Luke enjoys traveling, music, cups of tea and his beloved Swindon Town FC.

Robert Heavey

Market Development Executive

Robert is from Ireland and has over ten years’ Sales and Customer Service experience in a variety of industries and roles. As part of the Market Development team he's here to help grow the Mighway platform and will be a main touchpoint for our owners. Rob has a passion for life e.g. coffee, food, wine, music and sunshine.

Lucy-Jane Haslam

Head of Service Delivery

Lucy has worked in Travel and Tourism for 20 years and is part of the Mighway team, as Head of Service Delivery which incorporates the Customer Experience team and Operations. Lucy has come from previous Sales and Operational roles with Air New Zealand and All Blacks Tours and brings strong operational strength and customer focus to Mighway. With a passion for travel, her favourites to visit so far start with a ‘C” - Croatia and Cuba.

Michael Cathro

Customer Experience Specialist

Michael comes to Mighway with an operations background and a knowledge of the insurance industry. Originally from Ōtepoti he has a fondness for average banter, knick-knacks, and European courtyards. Moderately travelled, a side quest for novelty has taken him from being stuck on top of moving buses in the Himalayan foothills to swordplay over stout with toothless poets in Irish villages and a 3-month sojourn in mainland Europe sleeping in the back of a small Peugeot on a poorly constructed DIY bed base.

Nicole Daghlian

Customer Experience Specialist

With her industrial design background and experience with THL brands Nicole brings to Mighway her design thinking skills and product knowledge. Nicole is also a polyglot and can speak five languages fluently (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Armenian and English) so please don’t be shy and feel free to ask for her if you need assistance in your language.

Fergus Cook

Customer Experience Specialist

Ferg is a farm boy from Tuatapere, but he grew up in the Queenstown area where he got hooked on outdoor activities. He loves a good adventure and takes every opportunity to get outdoors, and is a big sports fan and even bigger snowboarding fan! Ferg comes to us with experience in customer service at thl, and he's passionate about helping people see the best of New Zealand!

Nadine Tietz

Customer Experience Specialist

Nadine came to us all the way from Germany where she graduated from University as a Social Worker. On the long journey to middle earth she stopped by in Canada, where she had her first seasonal job within the RV industry and discovered her passion to help create unforgettable holidays. After arriving in NZ she got adopted by the thl RV rentals family and had the chance to work in both countries, NZ and AU. She can now look back on more than 5 years of experience working with motorhomes and thousands of km travelled in them. Nadine is passionate about animals, the environment, healthy living and of course travelling (road trips – yeah!)

Gavin Tansey

Accounts Executive

Having just landed in NZ from the west coast of Ireland, Gavin’s university background is in economics and finance. He comes with over 10 years experience in sales, customer services, government roles. Gavin loves to travel and get out and about in the wilderness. His passions include playing the drums, dogs, and is stoked to explore NZ and the local culture in his free time.

Leola Xu

Head of Software Development

Leola is passionate about enabling business with technology and driving a collaborative environment. She enjoys understanding and analysing business needs, organising information, creating visual representations and driving a shared understanding. She has experience working in the hotel management industry, the cinema industry, and for large software companies. Outside of work, Leola enjoys getting out into nature of bush walks, hiking, running, and camping, as well appreciating abstract art.

Malik

Lead Architect

Malik is currently working as a Lead Architect at Mighway. Having extensive development and architect experience in large organisations, like REA Group, a global online real estate advertising company, Malik has always been passionate about technology innovation. Malik joined Mighway in February 2018 and is keen to learn more about the New Zealand tourism industry. In his spare time, Malik enjoys sports, travel and adventure.

Facundo Romero

QA Overlord

With over 9 years of experience in QA, Facundo has had the opportunity to test all kinds of software, from mobile and console gaming, to point of sale software, and tons of other apps. He'll make sure to break our website, so that it's working smoothly by the time you get your hands on it! In his free time, Facundo is a Bard from the College of Lore, adventuring throughout Exandria, in search of treasure and knowledge in his weekly D&D game.

Maia Lawson

QA Doge

Maia is writing an automation test suite so while the automation is breaking the website for her and maintaining our platform’s stability, she can show everyone pictures of Doge. In her spare time, Maia likes to read, game, binge-watch anime, and look at pictures of Doge.

Adam Peryman

Senior Software Developer

Adam's a nerd who enjoys pretty much everything. His favourite distro is Arch Linux, he codes in Vim, he still uses IRC, and he has way too many unfinished projects on GitHub. In his free time he can usually be found gaming, playing the piano, producing electronic music, or practising Brazilian jiu-jitsu. If you want to talk about WoW for hours, Adam's your man.

Alex Moreau

Full Stack Developer

Alex is from France and decided to come to New Zealand to improve both his English and his skills in IT. After experiencing multiple JS frameworks he fell in love with React, and that's what he is doing here at Mighway. Outside of work Alex loves sports, travel, piano, and e-sports.

CJ Choi

Front-end Developer

CJ has developed corporate window and web applications professionally since 2012. He holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Engineering from Dankook University, Korea. He mainly focuses on the React.js for front-end development, and is interested in cutting-edge web technologies and strives to stay up-to-date in an ever-changing technological landscape. He loves sports like soccer, tennis, and golf. He plays 7-a-side football twice a week.

Aldie Vervaeke

US Operations Manager

Aldie was born in Belgium, travelled to the US in 1997 and loved it so much that he moved there the next year to start working as a tour guide for camping adventure tours during summer months and Divemaster in the Caribbean in winter. Eventually working up to management positions at two different camping adventure tour companies. In 2006 he shifted over to the motorhome rental industry, working in Northern California as Branch Manager of the Road Bear RV San Francisco branch and as Procurement Specialist. When Mighway decided to venture into the US and needed someone to fill the US Operations Manager position Aldie was very excited to jump on board and to become part of the Mighway team starting April 2017.